Forgiveness
In the movie, Eat, Pray, Love, Julia Robert tells a man from Texas how much she feels betrayed and hurt by her ex. He says,
"Send him some love and light every time you think about him, then drop it."
(You can watch the scene here )
A friend hurt me, and as I was on the phone with my mom, ugly words wanted to spill out of my mouth. Instead, I took a breath and chose silence.
I reminded myself, "Riley, you don't need to talk trash to feel like a treasure again. Nor do you need to push someone down to raise yourself up."
After the phone call ended, I could still feel the bitterness running in my veins, so I thought of the person who hurt me and asked God to bless them. It wasn't easy, but I kept praying kind things over my friend until I could feel my heart start to soften.
Forgiveness is our God-given, get-out-of-jail card. We all know the feeling of bitterness and unforgiveness in our hearts - it feels like drinking poison. This thing that you keep thinking of has already stolen so much from you. Don't let it steal more time. Jesus can vindicate and judge way better than you… so we probably should let Him do that.
I met a lady at the airport who told me, "Forgiveness is not a line you cross but a journey you take."
And to give you another reason to choose to let go, unforgiveness is classified as a disease in medical books. According to Dr. Steven Standiford, Chief of Surgery at the Cancer Treatment Centers of America, refusing to forgive makes people sick and keeps them that way.
While I am so sorry for the hurt you've experienced, it's time to forgive and move on.
The reality is we have all fallen short. I think of the words I used to yell at my bully in kindergarten who tried to pinch me: "Treat others the way you want to be treated."
Right now, I encourage you to bring the person who hurt you to your mind, and send them light in the form of a prayer or kind thoughts. Then, drop it.
And if you think of them a minute from now, repeat the steps above.
Continue to repeat them until the bitterness turns into blessing. ❤️
As Jesus said, "𝘏𝘰𝘸𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳, 𝘐 𝘴𝘢𝘺 𝘵𝘰 𝘺𝘰𝘶, 𝘭𝘰𝘷𝘦 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘦𝘯𝘦𝘮𝘺, 𝘣𝘭𝘦𝘴𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘸𝘩𝘰 𝘤𝘶𝘳𝘴𝘦𝘴 𝘺𝘰𝘶, 𝘥𝘰 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘸𝘰𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘧𝘶𝘭 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘸𝘩𝘰 𝘩𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘴 𝘺𝘰𝘶, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘱𝘰𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺 𝘰𝘯𝘦𝘴 𝘸𝘩𝘰 𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘦𝘤𝘶𝘵𝘦 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘣𝘺 𝘱𝘳𝘢𝘺𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘮" (Matthew 5:44).
